11,839 Global POSTON Family Members

POSTON Family History

Recorded in the spellings of Postan, Postance, Poston, Postin, and several others, this is an English residential surname. However spelt the surname describes a dweller by a Postern gate, or more likely the keeper of the gate. It derives from the French word "posterle", and originally described a rear entrance, but in later times was taken to mean the small gate at the side of a portcullis which admitted one person at a time. The word was introduced into the English langauge after the Norman Conquest of 1066, and the surname followed shortly after, probably as a result of the thousand fortresses that the Normans built to keep their unruly country under control.